Mary Keith with JDI is pleased that the province is looking to lower natural gas distribution rates.

She tells CHSJ News it has been very difficult for businesses and residents alike under the Enbridge monopoly because the cost of operations for Enbridge in the province has been 4 times higher than other places.

Keith hopes the Energy and Utilities and Board will take a close look at Enbridge's cost of operations.

Earlier this year, JDI's Atlantic Wallboard plant had to shut down every 3 months because of escalating energy costs.

The Opposition finance critic says there is a no doubt that the Premier has broken another campaign promise by not freezing property assessment for seniors.Instead, seniors can defer future property tax increases so they could stay in their homes longer under amendments to the tax act.Donald Arsenault tells CHSJ News seniors contribute so much to our province and should be treated with respect.

He says David Alward lied to them during the election and told them to expect a certain thing and they are now getting something else.He calls that a lack of leadership and very irresponsible for the premier to do what he did.

Arsenault adds the province is also playing around with the budget calling it creative accounting and he won't be surprised if the Tories raise the HST thereby breaking another campaign promise.

Mayor Ivan Court says missing the deadline won't result in any issues with the budget.

He tells CHSJ News the city missed the deadline because it's doing its due diligence -- the documents need to be translated to French and the city wants to be sure that the wording is correct so there cannot be any challenges in the future.

He says the city anticipated that the pension issue may not be dealt with until the spring sitting of the legislature.

Seniors will be able to defer future property tax increases so they could stay in their homes longer under amendments to the Real Property Tax Act introduced by the provincial government.

Premier David Alward had promised to freeze property tax rates for seniors when he was campaigning.

Seniors 65 or older, who own a principal residence and receive the Residential Property Tax Credit, could be eligible for this new program that would allow those who are experiencing financial difficulty to apply to defer their annual increase in property taxes.

The deferred taxes with interest would be payable to the provincial government upon change of ownership of the property.

The city has missed the deadline to get its pension plan reforms passed before the provincial legislature wraps up before Christmas.Without those changes being enacted, the pension plan's deficit will grow ever larger.

John Campbell, who has already announced he will be seeking a seat on Common Council in the next municipal election, is flabbergasted.

He questions why the deadline was missed and what effect will it have on next year's city budget. Mayor Ivan Court maintains it will have no effect.

Campbell predicts Common Council will be hardpressed to maintain the tax rate where it is now.Common Council has scheduled a special closed door meeting tomorrow morning to talk about what is termed a financial matter.

The Alward government proposing changes to the Regional Health Authorities Act to allow the election of board members to the regional health authorities. The proposal is intended to increase the accountability and transparency of the management of health authorities.

In a release, Health Minister Madeline Dube says communities have clearly indicated that they want a voice in their health authorities and this change would give them that voice.

Under the proposed changes, each board would have 15 members, 8 would be elected and 7 would be appointed.Elections would be in conjunction with municipal elections.